The World Gold Council has just published the latest issue of “Gold Demand Trends” (Q1 2011). This is a rather bullish report, concluding: “The outlook for global gold demand remains robust throughout 2011against a background of another strong quarter, the geographic and sectoral diversity of demand and strong fundamentals.”

The report summarized the demand trends as follows:

Global gold demand in the first quarter of 2011 totaled 981.3 tonnes, up 11% year-on-year from 881.0 tonnes in the first quarter of 2010. In value terms, this translated to U.S. $43.7bn, compared with $31.4bn in the first quarter of 2010, an increase of almost 40%. This was largely attributable to a widespread rise in demand for bars and coins, supported by an improvement in jewelery demand in key markets.

The quarterly average gold price hit a new record of U.S. $1,386.27/oz (London PM Fix), its eighth consecutive year-on-year increase. Despite a period of price consolidation in the early part of the quarter, it climbed to record highs throughout March and has continued to achieve new highs in April and May.

During the first quarter of the year, investment demand grew by 26% to 310.5 tonnes from 245.6 tonnes in the first quarter of 2010. In value terms, investment demand was $13.8bn. The main growth came from bar and coin demand which increased by 52% year-on-year, to 366.4 tonnes. In value terms, this represented a near-doubling of demand to $16.3bn from $8.6bn in Q1 2010.

ETFs and similar products witnessed net outflows of 56 tonnes ($2.5bn). Redemptions were concentrated in January. Despite the outflows, the collective volume of gold held by global ETFs by the end of the quarter was in excess of 2,100 tonnes equating to more than $95bn.

Jewelery demand in the first quarter of 2011 registered a gain of 7% from year earlier levels of 521.3 tonnes to reach 556.9 tonnes. This equated to a record quarterly value of $24.8bn. India and China, the two largest markets for gold jewelery, together accounted for 349.1 tonnes or 63% of the total, a value of $16bn. China’s jewelery demand reached a new quarterly record of 142.9 tonnes ($6.4bn) up 21% from 118.2 tonnes in the first quarter of 2010.

Technology demand remained steady in the first quarter at 113.8 tonnes ($5.1bn). A revision to the fourth quarter figures now means that 2010 was the highest year on record for gold demand in electronics at 326.8 tonnes or $12.9bn.

In Q1 2011, gold supply declined by 4% year-on-year to 872.2 tonnes from 912.1 tonnes in the first quarter of 2010. This decline was due to a sharp increase in net purchasing by the official sector and a fall in the supply of recycled gold, which was down 6% on year-earlier levels to 347.5 tonnes from 369.3 tonnes in the first quarter of 2010. Mine production increased by 44 tonnes year-on-year, a growth rate of 7% from year earlier levels, with negligible net producer de-hedging.

Central bank purchases jumped to 129 tonnes in the quarter, exceeding the combined total of net purchases during the first three quarters of 2010.

The World Gold Council expects gold to be driven by the following factors during the rest of 2011.

Prevailing global socio-economic conditions will continue to drive investment demand for gold. These include: Continued uncertainty over the U.S. economy and the dollar, ongoing European sovereign debt concerns, global inflationary pressures and continued tensions in the Middle East and North Africa.

Sustained momentum in Chinese and Indian jewelery demand will underpin growth in the jewelery sector throughout 2011. Strong demand in India during the recent Akshaya Tritiya festival and the beginning of the wedding season, alongside extensive purchasing on dips in the gold price, underlines the strength of the Indian market.

Net purchasing by the official sector is expected to continue in 2011 as central banks turn to gold as a means of diversifying their reserves into an asset with no credit or counter-party risk.

This material is for informational purposes only. Although it is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, Leland National Gold does not guarantee its accuracy, or being all-inclusive. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. There are risks in buying and selling physical metals. The potential for loss as well as gain increases by leveraging physical precious metals transactions. Never trade with more money than you can afford to lose, and always be sure to read the Risk Disclosure provided in your account documents.

Viewers around the world woke to a surprise of a leaked call that occurred this past weekend that has already taken on viral traits. David Morgan of http://www.Silver-Investor.com was introduced to Internet marketer and creator of the highly controversial Silver Keisers, Troy James by Max Keiser on May 3rd, 2011. The discussion between the two led to the opinion that they thought the world needed to know the views from all of the largest names that have been talking about silver as being the biggest investment of this decade and where they stand now. As most know, silver recently took a steep decline after its rapid climb earlier this year and is now hovering at a price of mid-30s per ounce.

After sending out a large number of invitations, some of the largest names in silver decided the idea was a smart one and participated. Others were not available and wanted to know how it went after the call. The men that were on the call were none other than Eric Sprott from Sprott Asset Management, Bill Murphy from GATA.org, Rob Kirby from Kirby Analytics, James Anderson from GoldSilver.com who was sitting in for Mike Maloney who became suddenly ill before the call, Bob Quartermain from Pretium Resources Inc., a journalist named Sean who has a popular blog and YouTube channel with 15,000 subscribers called the SGTReport.com and obviously the organizers David and Troy.

On the call Eric Sprott talks about the banking system in his views, Rob Kirby discusses a drive-by shooting in silver and Bill Murphy talks about how GATA caught the Federal Reserve doing something illegal. This call was to share in a round table discussion of what’s ahead in the silver market that many have been calling a “bubble.” All parties come to the same conclusion and are well worth the watch.

The call lasted for just under an hour and is probably one of the best listen-ins available to the silver market thus far. The call was converted into a four part YouTube video series by a sub-contract firm for Catalyst X, Abstract Theory Design, and can be watched at the following addresses below or by searching, “Call Leaked-Biggest Names Discuss Silver.”

After the early morning release of the videos Troy James in a discussion with staff was quoted saying, “This is the assurance the silver stackers needed to hear from the people they’ve been relying on.” He went on to say, “This has been a great experience to be involved in something so big with guys of this magnitude. David Morgan is truly a wealth of information and he wants to extend an offer to help people inquiring about silver further which we will be assisting him in doing.” Troy has been best known in the silver sector for all the work he and his firms have been doing with broadcast journalist and silver activist, Max Keiser from http://www.MaxKeiser.com.

David Morgan is a widely recognized analyst in the precious metals industry and consults for hedge funds, high net worth investors, mining companies, depositories and bullion dealers. He is the publisher of The Morgan Report on precious metals, author of “Get the Skinny On Silver Investing” (Morgan James Publishing, 2009), and featured speaker at investment conferences in North America, Europe and Asia. http://www.Silver-Investor.com

This material is for informational purposes only. Although it is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, Leland National Gold does not guarantee its accuracy, or being all-inclusive. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. There are risks in buying and selling physical metals. The potential for loss as well as gain increases by leveraging physical precious metals transactions. Never trade with more money than you can afford to lose, and always be sure to read the Risk Disclosure provided in your account documents.

The excitement that surrounded the gold and silver markets for most of last year has somewhat subsided this year. Although events in the first quarter of the year have been very interesting, gold hasn’t been making the headlines as much as one would think. These are the type of lull periods in the gold market that get me the most excited. We are clearly in a period of consolidation, which in my opinion, is very bullish for gold.

My number one wish is for sentiment to turn decidedly bearish. I want people to believe that our debt problems can be papered over forever without repercussions. I want people to trade in their gold for stocks and be done with it. I want deflationists to explain for the 10th year in a row why gold is going to $200. I want people to say gold is a bubble even though gold, having consolidated for 4 straight months, resembles no bubble I’ve ever studied. These are the kind of things I will look for in an intermediate term bottom.

Balanced Outlook

While gold is positioned to go much higher from here, I believe those with the most balanced outlook in gold will be the most profitable. When gold is rocketing higher day after day, it is common to hear that the dollar is going to collapse and gold is going to $10,000. On the flip side, when gold is correcting. you hear about how the dollar is the ultimate safe haven currency and how gold is going back to $200. Neither of these views is truly balanced.

In the same way that the British pound didn’t disappear but merely made way for the U.S. dollar, I believe the U.S. dollar will make way for a new global currency. If this is in the form of SDR’s, the dollar will still be in demand. The real debate doesn’t necessarily revolve around the dollar disappearing, it concerns the dominance of the dollar. As long as the U.S. is the dominant military power, they will have the dominant currency. However, no matter how much airplay the rise of Asia receives, I still think people are underestimating the magnitude of the shift we are seeing. These shifts in power occur a lot more frequently than you think. In ancient times, the Assyrians made way for the Babylonians, who made way for the Persians, who made way for the Greeks, who made way for the Romans. I strongly believe Asia, led by China, will dominate the 2nd half of the 21st century.

Gold and silver will play a critical role in the ascent of Asia. China has been accumulating gold at a torrid pace and they are positioning themselves very wisely for what is to come. Trading in depreciating Treasuries for gold is just about the smartest thing China can do- and they are doing it. Heck, China can use their dollar reserves to buy the U.S.’s gold, thereby contracting our current account deficit with China. This will not only strengthen China’s financial position, but it will allay some of the political pressure coming from Washington D.C. These are the trends I see coming.

This is a lull period that gold bugs will just have to fight through. If gold does suffer a major correction, block out all the talking heads on TV. States have yet to figure out how to legitimately balances their budgets. Debt growth on the federal level is still oupacing GDP growth. Pensions are still underfunded. Last time I checked, Boomers are still getting a year older every year. We are facing major funding problems in our near future. Believe me, gold is getting prepared to launch to outer space as a result.

This material is for informational purposes only. Although it is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, Leland National Gold does not guarantee its accuracy, or being all-inclusive. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. There are risks in buying and selling physical metals. The potential for loss as well as gain increases by leveraging physical precious metals transactions. Never trade with more money than you can afford to lose, and always be sure to read the Risk Disclosure provided in your account documents.

]]>https://lelandnationalgoldexchange.wordpress.com/2011/04/06/gold-the-calm-before-the-storm/feed/0lelandnationalgoldexchangeThe_Calm_Before_The_StormSilver and Gold Stay Strong as Greek and Portuguese Debt Hammeredhttps://lelandnationalgoldexchange.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/silver-and-gold-stay-strong-as-greek-and-portuguese-debt-hammered/
https://lelandnationalgoldexchange.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/silver-and-gold-stay-strong-as-greek-and-portuguese-debt-hammered/#respondTue, 08 Mar 2011 21:22:17 +0000http://lelandnationalgoldexchange.wordpress.com/?p=40]]>Any economic turmoil tends to be good news for the precious metals market, and the situation in Greece and Portugal is no exception. From an article at Reuters:

While credit concerns over Portugal— measured by the yield premium above the rate on triple-A German debt — remain off their highest levels, the rise in bond yields across the euro zone has pushed Portugal’s outright borrowing costs to levels many see as unsustainable.

Analysts say peripheral spreads may widen further as markets await signals from EU leaders who meet this week to discuss solutions to the debt crisis.

Earlier, Greece sold 1.625 billion euros worth of Treasury bills at a slightly higher yield than at a previous auction in February, a day after Moody’s three-notch ratings downgrade, pushing it closer to a possible debt restructuring.

This information highlights that we could be seeing economic downfall in more countries than our own. Restructuring of the debt in these countries could possibly lead to investors leaning on precious metals, as well as other hard assets, as a safe haven in the near future.

This material is for informational purposes only. Although it is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, Leland National Gold does not guarantee its accuracy, or being all-inclusive. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. There are risks in buying and selling physical metals. The potential for loss as well as gain increases by leveraging physical precious metals transactions. Never trade with more money than you can afford to lose, and always be sure to read the Risk Disclosure provided in your account documents. – Leland National Gold Exchange

At the National Press Club, Washington, D.C.

February 3, 2011

Good afternoon. I am pleased to be here at the National Press Club, and I’m especially glad for the opportunity to have a conversation with journalists who write about economic policy from our nation’s capital. Your job is not easy, but it is essential. Virtually every American is affected by developments in the economy and in economic policy. But contemporary economic issues can be highly complex, and few nonspecialists have the time or the background to master these issues on their own. The public must therefore rely on the diligent reporting, clear thinking, and lucid writing of reporters determined to go beyond dueling bumper stickers and sound bites to help people understand what they need to make good decisions, both in their personal finances and at the polls. These are weighty responsibilities, and the journalists I know take them very seriously.

Today, I will provide a brief update on the economy and how I expect it to evolve in the near term. Then I will turn to the implications for monetary policy. Finally, I will briefly discuss the daunting fiscal challenges that we face as a nation.

The Economic Outlook
The economic recovery that began in the middle of 2009 appears to have strengthened in recent months, although, to date, growth has not been fast enough to bring about a significant improvement in the job market. The early phase of the recovery, in the second half of 2009 and in early 2010, was largely attributable to the stabilization of the financial system, the effects of expansionary monetary and fiscal policies, and a strong boost to production from businesses rebuilding their depleted inventories. But economic growth slowed significantly last spring as the impetus from inventory building and fiscal stimulus diminished and as Europe’s debt problems roiled global financial markets.

More recently, however, we have seen increased evidence that a self-sustaining recovery in consumer and business spending may be taking hold. Notably, we learned last week that households increased their spending in the fourth quarter, in real terms, at an annual rate of more than 4 percent. Although a significant portion of this pickup reflected strong sales of motor vehicles, the recent gains in consumer spending look to have been reasonably broad based. Businesses’ investments in new equipment and software grew robustly over most of last year, as firms replaced aging equipment and as the demand for their products and services expanded. In contrast, in the housing sector, the overhang of vacant and foreclosed homes continues to weigh heavily on both home prices and residential construction. Overall, however, improving household and business confidence, accommodative monetary policy, and more-supportive financial conditions, including an apparent increase in the willingness of banks to make loans, seems likely to lead to a more rapid pace of economic recovery in 2011 than we saw last year.

While indicators of spending and production have, on balance, been encouraging, the job market has improved only slowly. Following the loss of about 8-1/2 million jobs in 2008 and 2009, private-sector employment showed gains in 2010. However, these gains were barely sufficient to accommodate the inflow of recent graduates and other new entrants to the labor force and, therefore, not enough to significantly reduce the overall unemployment rate. Recent data do provide some grounds for optimism on the employment front; for example, initial claims for unemployment insurance have generally been trending down, and indicators of job openings and firms’ hiring plans have improved. Even so, with output growth likely to be moderate for a while and with employers reportedly still reluctant to add to their payrolls, it will be several years before the unemployment rate has returned to a more normal level. Until we see a sustained period of stronger job creation, we cannot consider the recovery to be truly established.

On the inflation front, we have recently seen significant increases in some highly visible prices, notably for gasoline. Indeed, prices of many commodities have risen lately, largely as a result of the very strong demand from fast-growing emerging market economies, coupled, in some cases, with constraints on supply. Nevertheless, overall inflation remains quite low: Over the 12 months ending in December, prices for all the goods and services purchased by households increased by only 1.2 percent, down from 2.4 percent over the prior 12 months.1 To assess underlying trends in inflation, economists also follow several alternative measures of inflation; one such measure is so-called core inflation, which excludes the more volatile food and energy components and therefore can be a better predictor of where overall inflation is headed. Core inflation was only 0.7 percent in 2010, compared with around 2-1/2 percent in 2007, the year before the recession began. Wage growth has slowed as well, with average hourly earnings increasing only 1.8 percent last year. These downward trends in wage and price inflation are not surprising, given the substantial slack in the economy.

Monetary Policy
In sum, although economic growth will probably increase this year, we expect the unemployment rate to remain stubbornly above, and inflation to remain persistently below, the levels that Federal Reserve policymakers have judged to be consistent over the longer term with our mandate from the Congress to foster maximum employment and price stability. Under such conditions, the Federal Reserve would typically ease monetary policy by reducing the target for its short-term policy interest rate, the federal funds rate. However, the target range for the funds rate has been near zero since December 2008, and the Federal Reserve has indicated that economic conditions are likely to warrant an exceptionally low target rate for an extended period. As a result, for the past two years we have been using alternative tools to provide additional monetary accommodation.

In particular, over the past two years the Federal Reserve has further eased monetary conditions by purchasing longer-term securities on the open market. From December 2008 through March 2010, we purchased about $1.7 trillion in longer-term Treasury, agency, and agency mortgage-backed securities. In August 2010, we began reinvesting the proceeds from all securities that matured or were redeemed in longer-term Treasury securities, so as to keep the size of our securities holdings roughly constant. Around the same time, we began to signal to financial markets that we were considering providing additional monetary policy accommodation by conducting further asset purchases. And in early November, we announced a plan to purchase an additional $600 billion in longer-term Treasury securities by the middle of this year. All these purchases are settled through the banking system, with the result that depository institutions now hold a very high level of reserve balances with the Federal Reserve.

Although large-scale purchases of longer-term securities are a different monetary policy tool than the more familiar approach of targeting the federal funds rate, the two types of policies affect the economy in similar ways. Conventional monetary policy easing works by lowering market expectations for the future path of short-term interest rates, which, in turn, reduces the current level of longer-term interest rates and contributes to an easing in broader financial conditions. These changes, by reducing borrowing costs and raising asset prices, bolster household and business spending and thus increase economic activity. By comparison, the Federal Reserve’s purchases of longer-term securities have not affected very short-term interest rates, which remain close to zero, but instead put downward pressure directly on longer-term interest rates. By easing conditions in credit and financial markets, these actions encourage spending by households and businesses through essentially the same channels as conventional monetary policy, thereby supporting the economic recovery.

A wide range of market indicators supports the view that the Federal Reserve’s securities purchases have been effective at easing financial conditions. For example, since August, when we announced our policy of reinvesting maturing securities and signaled we were considering more purchases, equity prices have risen significantly, volatility in the equity market has fallen, corporate bond spreads have narrowed, and inflation compensation as measured in the market for inflation-indexed securities has risen from low to more normal levels. Yields on 5- to 10-year Treasury securities initially declined markedly as markets priced in prospective Fed purchases; these yields subsequently rose, however, as investors became more optimistic about economic growth and as traders scaled back their expectations of future securities purchases. All of these developments are what one would expect to see when monetary policy becomes more accommodative, whether through conventional or less conventional means. Interestingly, these developments are also remarkably similar to those that occurred during the earlier episode of policy easing, notably in the months following our March 2009 announcement of a significant expansion in securities purchases. The fact that financial markets responded in very similar ways to each of these policy actions lends credence to the view that these actions had the expected effects on markets and are thereby providing significant support to job creation and the economy.

My colleagues and I have said that we will review the asset purchase program regularly in light of incoming information and will adjust it as needed to promote maximum employment and stable prices. In particular, it bears emphasizing that we have the necessary tools to smoothly and effectively exit from the asset purchase program at the appropriate time. In particular, our ability to pay interest on reserve balances held at the Federal Reserve Banks will allow us to put upward pressure on short-term market interest rates and thus to tighten monetary policy when required, even if bank reserves remain high. Moreover, we have developed additional tools that will allow us to drain or immobilize bank reserves as required to facilitate the smooth withdrawal of policy accommodation when conditions warrant. If needed, we could also tighten policy by redeeming or selling securities.

Fiscal Policy
Fiscal policymakers also face significant challenges. The federal budget deficit has expanded to an average of more than 9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) over the past two years, up from an average of about 2 percent of GDP during the three years prior to the recession. The extraordinarily wide deficit largely reflects the weakness of the economy along with the actions that the Administration and the Congress took to ease the recession and steady financial markets. However, even after economic and financial conditions have returned to normal, the federal budget will remain on an unsustainable path, with the budget gap becoming increasingly large over time, unless the Congress enacts significant changes in fiscal programs.

For example, under plausible assumptions about how fiscal policies might evolve in the absence of major legislative changes, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects the deficit to fall from around 9 percent of GDP currently to roughly 5 percent of GDP by 2015, but then to rise to about 6-1/2 percent of GDP by the end of the decade.2 After that, it projects the budget outlook to deteriorate even more rapidly, with federal debt held by the public reaching almost 90 percent of GDP by 2020 and 150 percent of GDP by 2030, up from about 60 percent at the end of fiscal year 2010.

The long-term fiscal challenges confronting the nation are especially daunting because they are mostly the product of powerful underlying trends, not short-term or temporary factors. The two most important driving forces for the federal budget are the aging of the U.S. population and rapidly rising health-care costs. Indeed, the CBO projects that federal spending for health-care programs–which includes Medicare, Medicaid, and subsidies to purchase health insurance through new insurance exchanges–will roughly double as a percentage of GDP over the next 25 years.3 The ability to control health-care costs, while still providing high-quality care to those who need it, will be critical for bringing the federal budget onto a sustainable path.

The retirement of the baby-boom generation will also strain Social Security, as the number of workers paying taxes into the system rises more slowly than the number of people receiving benefits. Currently, there are about five individuals between the ages of 20 and 64 for each person aged 65 and older. By 2030, when most of the baby boomers will have retired, this ratio is projected to decline to around 3.4 Overall, the projected fiscal pressures associated with Social Security are considerably smaller than the pressures associated with federal health programs, but they are still notable.

The CBO’s long-term budget projections, by design, do not account for the likely adverse economic effects of such high debt and deficits. But if government debt and deficits were actually to grow at the pace envisioned, the economic and financial effects would be severe. Sustained high rates of government borrowing would both drain funds away from private investment and increase our debt to foreigners, with adverse long-run effects on U.S. output, incomes, and standards of living. Moreover, diminishing investor confidence that deficits will be brought under control would ultimately lead to sharply rising interest rates on government debt and, potentially, to broader financial turmoil. In a vicious circle, high and rising interest rates would cause debt-service payments on the federal debt to grow even faster, causing further increases in the debt-to-GDP ratio and making fiscal adjustment all the more difficult.

How much adjustment is needed to restore fiscal sustainability in the United States? To help answer this question, it is useful to apply the concept of the primary budget deficit, which is the government budget deficit excluding interest payments on the national debt. To stabilize the ratio of federal debt to the GDP–a convenient benchmark for assessing fiscal sustainability–the primary budget deficit must be reduced to zero.5 Under the CBO projection that I noted earlier, the primary budget deficit is expected to be 2 percent of GDP in 2015 and then rise to almost 3 percent of GDP in 2020 and 6 percent of GDP in 2030. These projections provide a gauge of the adjustments that will be necessary to attain fiscal sustainability. To put the budget on a sustainable trajectory, policy actions–either reductions in spending or increases in revenues or some combination of the two–will have to be taken to eventually close these primary budget gaps.

By definition, the unsustainable trajectories of deficits and debt that the CBO outlines cannot actually happen, because creditors would never be willing to lend to a government with debt, relative to national income, that is rising without limit. The economist Herbert Stein succinctly described this type of situation: “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.”6 One way or the other, fiscal adjustments sufficient to stabilize the federal budget must occur at some point. The question is whether these adjustments will take place through a careful and deliberative process that weighs priorities and gives people adequate time to adjust to changes in government programs or tax policies, or whether the needed fiscal adjustments will be a rapid and painful response to a looming or actual fiscal crisis. Acting now to develop a credible program to reduce future deficits would not only enhance economic growth and stability in the long run, but could also yield substantial near-term benefits in terms of lower long-term interest rates and increased consumer and business confidence. Plans recently put forward by the President’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform and other prominent groups provide useful starting points for a much-needed national conversation. Although these proposals differ on many details, they demonstrate that realistic solutions to our fiscal problems are available.

Of course, economic growth is affected not only by the levels of taxes and spending, but also by their composition and structure. I hope that, in addressing our long-term fiscal challenges, the Congress and the Administration will seek reforms to the government’s tax policies and spending priorities that serve not only to reduce the deficit, but also to enhance the long-term growth potential of our economy–for example, by reducing disincentives to work and to save, by encouraging investment in the skills of our workforce as well as in new machinery and equipment, by promoting research and development, and by providing necessary public infrastructure. Our nation cannot reasonably expect to grow its way out of our fiscal imbalances, but a more productive economy will ease the tradeoffs that we face.

Thank you. I would be pleased to take your questions.

This material is for informational purposes only. Although it is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, Leland National Gold does not guarantee its accuracy, or being all-inclusive. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. There are risks in buying and selling physical metals. The potential for loss as well as gain increases by leveraging physical precious metals transactions. Never trade with more money than you can afford to lose, and always be sure to read the Risk Disclosure provided in your account documents.

The Wall Street Journal describes how the political turmoil in Egypt is causing gold to “level off” after this years correction. Quoted from the article:

Protesters continued to rally in the streets for a fourth straight day against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, triggering worries that the unrest will spread to other Middle Eastern nations. Yemen and Tunisia have already been rocked with protests.

Gold is often considered a haven against political turmoil or economic downturns in part because it isn’t as linked to industrial production as are other assets, such as stocks.

“Egypt has got markets nervous,” said Sterling Smith, market analyst at Country Hedging in Minnesota. “That is naturally a good environment for gold.”

As political problems persist in 2011, gold and other precious metals will remain a safe haven for investors throughout the year.

This material is for informational purposes only. Although it is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, Leland National Gold does not guarantee its accuracy, or being all-inclusive. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. There are risks in buying and selling physical metals. The potential for loss as well as gain increases by leveraging physical precious metals transactions. Never trade with more money than you can afford to lose, and always be sure to read the Risk Disclosure provided in your account documents.

I was able to get 100 ounce silver bars (recently) and then all of the sudden these guys I call them and say ok, we are talking 100 ounce silver bars, they’ll say well, it’s a month out on any order you place today. And then I have people telling me they will not take any orders on 100 ounce silver bars until May.

There’s a couple of things that are going to happen that is going to shut a lot of people out of this market. All of the 100 ounce bars are going to be gone in a matter of days, not weeks, days. Then people are going to have to put up their money and they are going to have to wait weeks or months before they get their bars. They are also going to have to pay higher premiums for that product because the marketplace will put a higher premium on the bars on a price drop that depletes all of the vaults around the country.

Looks like Silver supplies may be depleted sooner than we thought!

This material is for informational purposes only. Although it is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, Leland National Gold does not guarantee its accuracy, or being all-inclusive. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. There are risks in buying and selling physical metals. The potential for loss as well as gain increases by leveraging physical precious metals transactions. Never trade with more money than you can afford to lose, and always be sure to read the Risk Disclosure provided in your account documents.

The ETFs GLD and SLV are commonly represented as being bullion. Accepting this assertion is naive and with potential financially lethal consequences. While GLD and SLV track the relative prices that is where the similarities with bullion end.

On May 20, 1999, Alan Greenspan testified before Congress, “Gold is always accepted and is the ultimate means of payment and is perceived to be an element of stability in the currency and in the ultimate value of the currency and that historically has always been the reason why governments hold gold.”

The ETFs GLD and SLV are not this ultimate form of currency. I will raise only a few essential issues, although there are many.

This material is for informational purposes only. Although it is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, Leland National Gold does not guarantee its accuracy, or being all-inclusive. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. There are risks in buying and selling physical metals. The potential for loss as well as gain increases by leveraging physical precious metals transactions. Never trade with more money than you can afford to lose, and always be sure to read the Risk Disclosure provided in your account documents.